


Enervation

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [110]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Plans, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-14
Updated: 2015-11-14
Packaged: 2018-05-01 13:49:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5208179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The group still back at the Compton place works on a strategy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enervation

**Author's Note:**

> Part two, "Love Interrupted."
> 
> **Original Characters** : Ghaliya Kazdaghli, Antoine Henriques, seen Isi Hill, Vanessa Quinones, Noël Beringer, Amarie Cambridge, Mallory Cambridge, implied the rest.

“So first order of business,” says Tara, who’s somewhat taken charge of the group in the basement.  They’re all crowded around in one of the new bedrooms, flopped on the floor and snuggled on the twin beds and sitting on the desk and in its chair.  “We need to figure out this fucker’s weaknesses.”

“Are there any he might have inherited from her lady of demonic divinity?” Eric asks his sister, a slight snap to his words.

Nora bristles slightly, like she’s pretty well realized she’s going to do when asked for her Lilith-related expertise for at least the next three centuries, but she muses, “To my knowledge, he hasn’t got any progeny to lead _him_ to the sun, so that’s useless no matter.”

“He wants to turn Sookie,” Pam offers, though she knows it’s going to be an unpopular suggestion.  “If she let him do that, suddenly progeny, suddenly prophecy.”

“Clever suggestion,” Ghaliya murmurs wryly, “but I highly doubt that your precious fairy princess would accept such a thing, and I highly doubt that her hapless golden retriever of a brother would allow it.”

“I agree,” Eric mutters, glaring at his oldest daughter.

“Anyway, would that even count since the sun doesn’t kill him ‘cause of the fairy thing?” Willa asks, trying desperately to get the conversation back to someplace productive that won’t turn into a family feud.

Nora nods approvingly in her niece’s direction.  “A fair point,” she concedes.  “It was just…”

“Yeah,” Jessica agrees. “It was a logical train of thought, promise.”  She kisses Nora’s cheek.

“Is Warlow really gonna have normal vampire weaknesses?” asks Antoine after a moment.

“Well, we know that he can’t get in the house,” Eric says, “so we can assume that at least some of the rules will apply.”

“I bet he’d die if we took his head off,” Luna (who’s currently wrapped in one of the comforters with Nicole, leaning against her like she’d be collapsing otherwise) mutters darkly.

It’s also a fair point, but nobody says as much simply because they don’t want to encourage Luna to try that herself (because they can all tell she’s thinking about it).

“My suspicion,” Nora continues, “is that he’ll have most of the _weaknesses_ we know of, but we can’t count on them being fatal.  Billith met the true death at the end of a stake…”  She pauses to squeeze Jessica’s hand. “...so we can assume that will work for Warlow.  And as Luna said, decapitation is also a likely possibility.  There aren’t many creatures on this earth that could survive that.”

“So we just gotta figure out a way to get close enough to him to stake him or to decapitate him,” Tara summarizes grimly.

“Or stake him _and_ decapitate him!” Jessica chirps, sounding much too delighted by the prospect.

“That would be a feat,” Pam smirks.

“Don’t snark,” Tara chides under her breath, but any further admonition is interrupted by her ringing cell phone.  ( _This_ basement has service, courtesy of King Bill Compton’s need for possibly daytime communication, and everyone is glad of it.)

“Is it Sookie and them?” Lafayette asks, lifting his head from Isi’s shoulder.

Tara nods and holds up a finger to silence everyone while she accepts the call, puts it on speaker.  “Hey, Sook, are you on your way back?” she asks.

“Not yet,” Sookie says.  Her voice still sounds wobbly, but in a way like she’s doing what she can to hold it together.  “Y’all okay over there?”

Tara glances around at everyone else - Isi with his arm around Lafayette, rubbing a thumb over the curve of his shoulder; Vanessa kneeling behind Nicole and Luna, waiting with a box of tissues in case either of them slides back out of their grieving trances into tears; Noël and Amarie and Mallory and Willa making a massage square on one of the beds (they’re all sad, but Willa is easily the most nervous, given that her baby girlfriend is currently out traipsing around while there’s a killer after them, and instead of singling her out and making her feel the spoiled child, Noël worked it out so they’d be comforting each other equally) - and sighs. “Not really,” she murmurs, “but we’re trying.  If you’re not comin’ back, are you at your own place?”

“Claudwina and Claudie did a spell so I get reception in this dimension,” Sookie says, and they can practically hear the shrug in her voice, like it’s not worth explaining further just this minute.  “Figured it was important, all things considered.”

“Yeah,” Tara agrees, laughing without much humor.  “So has your trip to the other dimension been productive?’

“Please tell us you’ve got some incredibly logical backstory or possibly a deus ex machina of a weakness we can aim at the psychotic asshole?” Pam interjects, sounding like she expects nothing (as always) but might actually hope something (for once).

“I’ll let them explain,” Sookie says, and there’s a pause while she presumably waves the full-blood fairies over.  “Now we’re all on speakerphone.”

“Charming,” one of the fairies croons.

“Hello, basement of Sookie’s friends!” another exclaims.

“Are y’all safe?” Willa calls, anxious.

“Yeah, honey, we are,” Braelyn calls back through the line.

“Holy christ,” Pam mutters under her breath, causing Tara to nudge her violently.

“Miss Garza?” the only unfamiliar male voice in the bunch says almost timidly, like he’s afraid of overstepping his boundaries.  “Please accept all of our condolences.  Your fiance sounds like he was a wonderful man and we’re sure he will be sorely missed.”

Luna chokes on her “thank you,” but it gets said.

“We oughta talk more later, Luna,” Sookie says softly.  “After everything.”

“Yeah,” Luna agrees.

“But after,” Sookie repeats.  “Claude, you wanna fill everyone in on the whole fucked up story?”

“Certainly,” the male voice - Claude - says.

And he does.  Every bit of it, from the treaty to the murder of Sookie and Jason’s parents to the ways it has all come together.  He takes questions from anyone who has them (mostly Willa and Nora, which surprises absolutely no one) and explains everything thoroughly and repeatedly.

“So that’s that, I guess,” Sookie sighs once he’s finished.  “Hey, Tara?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you take me off speaker now?”

Tara and Jessica and Willa exchange glances, like that’s not something they should be hearing right now, and Tara murmurs, “Of course,” but if her heart still beat it would be thudding.


End file.
